Is Facebook a good way to judge job applicants?

It should come as no surprise that companies often resort to scanning a job applicant’s Facebook profile for evidence of drug or alcohol use, sometimes eliminating qualified applicants based on erroneous assumptions that they are not responsible or "conscientious" -- an important personality trait that employers use to gauge prospective hires.

Researchers at N.C. State University sought to test the validity of such snap judgments when using Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to screen job applicants, publishing their results in a paper titled, “Big Five Personality Traits Reflected in Job Applicants’ Social Media Postings.”

After testing 175 participants, researchers found that there is no significant correlation between conscientiousness and an individual’s willingness to publish content on Facebook pertaining to alcohol or drug use.

“This study takes a different twist,” said Lori Foster Thompson, the paper’s co-author. “This study is saying employers need to beware because by engaging in these practices and weeding out people, they might not know exactly who they’re weeding out.”

The researchers said extraversion and agreeableness were often the easiest traits to identify on Facebook.

The research did not identify what employers thought of job applicants lacking a social-media presence altogether, though in a world that is increasingly technology-driven, that’s arguably not doing those applicants any favors.